


The Softball Seduction

by silveradept



Series: Hermione Granger and the Storybrooke Shuffle [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - In Storybrooke | Cursed, F/F, Storybrooke full of Hogwarts Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:08:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16042952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Hermione makes the acquaintance of an extremely athletic redhead after her softball game. Unlike at Hogwarts, this particular version of Ginny seems more interested in her than in who she was back at school. Hermione isn't sure whether to hold off or to take the opportunity presented.





	The Softball Seduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Slytherinsheadbitch91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slytherinsheadbitch91/gifts).



"Phyllis?" Hermione said, spotting the pink-haired woman sitting at a park by near the playground. She was getting more used to calling Luna by this name, in this place, as the differences between the Luna Lovegood she'd known at Hogwarts and the woman sitting here became slightly clearer. For one thing, Luna wouldn't have worn earrings that dangled. She said they made great perches for one or another of the creatures that the Quibbler dedicated plenty of pages to and that nobody ever actually saw.

"Oh, hello again, Hermione!" said Phyllis. "I'm pretty sure you don't have any children to supervise, so this is unexpected."

Hermione blinked a couple times. Luna had always been a little more willing to say whatever came to mind, but it was still a bit startling to hear Phyllis take that tendency to this degree.

"I was looking for you. Do you know that your business cards don't have an address for where your shop is?"

"Oh, none of the business cards do here. Storybooke is such a small town that you can start walking in any direction and know whether it was the right one after too long."

"What about people who aren't from Storybooke?"

"We don't get visitors," Phyllis said, shrugging. "It's really hard to find here, and there's nothing but woods and animals around us for a good long way."

Hermione frowned, a fully formed thought about the impossibility of a self-sufficient town somewhere in the middle of rural America about to escape, but she remembered the circumstances of the curse that had created it and pulled her friends into it, and decided to let it go.

Phyllis turned to look at Hermione, and then shook her head.

"No," she said, as if Hermione had asked a question only she had heard, "you're not here to make an appointment. If you were, you would have found the shop already."

Hermione _was_ there to try and find the shop, from the person running it, but before she could even begin to articulate that thought, a blur barreled through her vision and dove, catching something in a glove on her hand.

Hermione watched as she leapt back to her feet and flung a ball back toward the game going on. She couldn't see the result clearly, but she heard the scream of triumph easily. The red hair on the fielder reminded her of Ginny. Maybe it was...?

Hermione turned to ask Phyllis something, but she had left the bench while Hermione had been distracted. Hermione looked for the pink hair that would indicate where she had gone, but Phyllis had left without a trace.

Turning her attention back to the game going on, Hermione watched as the players chased a ball hit by another player around. She kept coming back to the red-haired fielder, running back and forth with the same energy Hermione had seen Ginny sweep across the Quidditch pitch, and just as competitive. Even though she had no idea how well or poorly the game was going, Ginny kept playing like it didn't matter, and only seemed to slow down a little bit when the game was done.

"Okay. I'll see you there," she was saying to the last of her team when Hermione walked up.

"Gin--Hi," Hermione said, nearly making the same mistake she had with Luna/Phyllis the first time.

"Hi," the red-haired woman said, smiling at her and shaking Hermione's hand with a firm and dirty hand. "You're new around here. I'm Melissa. Did you want to play softball with us?"

"Ah, no thank you," Hermione said quickly. "I've never been one for athletic competitions. Always seemed to be a bunch of boys or girls trying to hurt each other as much as possible."

"Sure," Melissa said, leaving a pause where Hermione realized a name should go.

"Oh! Hermione," Hermione said. "I'm so sorry. You look so much like someone I knew, for a moment I forgot we haven't met."

"Nice to meet you, Hermione," Melissa said, lifting her bag of equipment and walking toward the edge of the playground. Hermione followed.

"I wouldn't worry too much about getting hurt here," Melissa continued. "Storybooke is basically the beer leagues, but if you want to get scouted, you have to play."

"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with softball," Hermione said. Melissa looked at her skeptically.

"I didn't grow up with a lot of sport. My parents were dentists, you see, and they saw what happened when people played roughly."

"Okay," Melissa nodded. "I'm the only girl of four, so if I wanted to play at all, I had to play what my brothers were playing. As games go, softball is pretty easy to learn. Are you sure you don't want to join?"

Hermione shook her head, increasingly certain that Ginny Weasley was standing in front of her. It was a relief that Ginny was okay, but that meant one more of her friends had fallen victim to this curse.

"You want to play softball professionally?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah. Well, at college first, then as a pro, but that means convincing my parents to let me out of this town. They seem much more interested in finding me a nice husband instead."

"That seems rather regressive for this day and age," Hermione said, frowning.

"Tell me about it! They wanted a princess who would wear dresses and play with dolls and be more interested in clothes than sports. Someone who would find a nice boy and go marry him and start making grandchildren. Joke's on them, though! There's no way I'm ever bringing a boy home for them to judge!" Melissa grinned a fierce Weasley grin. She'd seen that look on Ginny before. And on...the twins, when they were still together.

Melissa poked Hermione's shoulder, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hey. Everything okay in there?" she said.

"Yes, of course. Memories," she said.

"Ah, I know the cure for that. Ice cream. C'mon. You can meet the team." Melissa pointed in the direction of the town's diner.

Hermione didn't quite understand why the diner was so popular, when there was a perfectly good library in the town, but she let Melissa lead her in the direction of Storybrooke's "greasy spoon," as Luna--Phyllis has described it.

When Melissa opened the door to a crowded space, she elbowed her way through the teams, still in their uniforms, clearing a path for Hermione to follow into they reached a booth near the back.

Melissa put in an order for chips and drinks for both of them.

"So I hear that Goldemort has taken an interest in you," Melissa said, after the server has left.

"Does everyone call him that?" Hermione said, biting back the reflex to tell Ginny not to say that name.

"Not to his face," Melissa said, utterly unrepentant. "But otherwise, yeah." She looked at Hermione, as if trying to figure out why Mr. Gold would have such a keen interest in her.

"Well, you're pretty enough, I suppose. Although I think he'd be happier with someone closer to his own age," she said finally.

"What?!" Hermione spluttered the drink of water she was in the middle of. Melissa laughed as she helped Hermione clean up the table.

"Gold is a creepy guy, but he's got his eyes on someone else, I think. You looked so serious, though. Did you really think so?"

"No," Hermione said, continuing to pat down any water she had spilled on herself. "I think...he does want something with me, though."

"Well, whatever it is, don't give it to him. He already owns enough of this town as it is." Melissa frowned at the thought, but brightened immediately as the food and drinks arrived and a detachment of the team came over to talk with Melissa about the game Hermione had observed.

Hermione apologized about not knowing anything the first few times someone tried to bring her in to the conversation, and seemed content to let it all flow around her, this new place, with familiar people who were still strangers.

Perhaps because she wasn't as involved in the conversation, she noticed how often Melissa's teammates referred to meeting Hermione as "catching a cute one" or some other similar phrase. And that while Melissa would be brash and downplay it, there was always the hint of a blush on her face as she was doing so.

"So," Melissa said, after the team had dispersed some to their houses, "do you want to hang out some more at my place? You certainly seem like a cool person, and..." she leaned in to whisper in Hermione's ear. "...I wasn't kidding when I said you were pretty."

Hermione froze, a multitude of thoughts running in her head. Ginny had always been so determined to catch Harry that Hermione hadn't stopped to consider the possibility of who else she might have been interested in if Harry hadn't worked out. She had mentioned wanting to play for the Harpies, and there had always been the baseless rumor circulated that all of the Harpies were more interested in each other than in any man that might want be with them. Had Ginny always been interested in women as well? Was "Melissa" making it more possible for Ginny to be open about herself?

"No commitments," Melissa said, settling back down until her seat. "Good clean casual fun, no need to worry about making breakfast in the morning."

"I've...never done anything like that before," Hermione said, deciding that sticking with universal truths, regardless of which universe they were in, was the best course of action.

"You're missing out, then," Melissa said back, with a sly conspiratorial grin. "First things first, though."

Melissa bounced up from her chair and headed to the register to pay the bill. Hermione was very certain everyone in the pub could see her scarlet flush as she tried to sort and understand all of this new information. Ginny had never expressed an interest like this. Melissa, however, wasn't Ginny, in the same way that Phyllis wasn't Luna. They had pieces of them, but they're were other parts involved as well. It was really difficult to tell which parts were from the person and which parts had been added on by the curse. What might happen when the curse was broken?

And how _did_ she feel about it? She had been kind of interested in Ron, but in this world, he was his very worst self, even more self-absorbed and sport-obsessed than he had been in the Wizarding World. There was no way that man would amount to anything. She certainly wasn't interested in _him_.

And she was interested in Melissa. Even if only to see this part of Ginny that she hadn't before. It might prove helpful in breaking the curse.

"You're going to do this." she said quietly to herself, just before Melissa returned.

"So? Are you in?" she said, still grinning.

Hermione looked up, hoping that she didn't look totally embarrassed, and nodded.

"Great," Melissa said.

Hermione was a bit surprised at how quickly Melissa went to mechanics after they had left the pub.

"So, do you like someone with oral skills or manual ones?"

Hermione blinked, unsure how to answer.

"How do you usually masturbate? Fingers, dildoes, a magic wand and some dirty stories?"

Hermione looked very surprised at the last one. Gold had said everyone's magic had been taken away by the curse.

Melissa looked at Hermione's surprise and interpreted it to mean something very different.

"Oh, don't tell me you've never gotten yourself off."

"No, I have, but..." Hermione stopped herself immediately after realizing what she had just admitted to, thoroughly embarrassed as she remembered her earliest furtive attempts at Hogwarts while there wasn't anyone else around.

"Oh, you're adorable when you're embarrassed," Melissa said. "It's okay. I won't hurt you. Unless that's what gets you off. If that's what does it for you, though, I might have to call in some help."

Hermione shook her head and shuddered. It had taken a very long time with the therapist before she stopped seeing the bodies in her dreams. "No pain," she said firmly, bordering on harshly. "I've had enough of that to last a lifetime."

"I'm sorry," Melissa said, without a trace of her previous playfulness. "I didn't realize that was a sensitive space."

They walked in silence for a block before Melissa spoke again.

"Here we are," she said, pointing at one of the apartment buildings. Hermione followed her point to one of the windows she thought was what Melissa had pointed at. She was surprised when Melissa put her hands on Hermione's shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"Hey. I know I talk a good game and it sounds like I'm in this for my own fun, but I care a lot about my partners having a good time. So, if you're uncomfortable about anything, and you say so, we'll stop. If you can't think of stop, say the word red if you want us to stop, or yellow if you need us to talk things over before we do anything more. Understand?"

Hermione nodded.

"I'd like to hear you say it, please," Melissa said gently.

"I...understand," Hermione replied, trying not to let her surprise at this side of Melissa show.

"Thank you. I'm going to be looking at you tonight, too. Almost everyone I've been with has triggers or situations that they don't want to get near. If it looks like we're headed into something like that for you, or for me, I'm going to stop, even if you don't want to. I don't like playing with people's heads."

Hermione nodded. "I appreciate that."

Melissa smiled brightly and led Hermione through the similar-looking buildings and up to one of the apartment doors. L2, Hermione noted while Melissa unlocked the doors.

"Ready to have some fun?" she said, smiling, gently pushing the door open. The apartment was quiet, and Melissa ushered Hermione into her room shortly after re-locking the door.

For as much as Hermione was nervous about what was going to happen, she couldn't help looking around the room. A couple of posters for collegiate softball in places she hadn't heard of, a chest of drawers with some makeup on top, across from what looked to be figurines of impossibly-endowed women in impractical hero costumes.

"I've always wanted to be a superhero," Melissa said, having followed Hermione's gaze. "I never felt I had the chest for it," she added with a smile. Hermione looked over to the bed and couldn't stop herself from turning back around. While she been looking at the things in Melissa's room, Melissa has already shed her outer layer and was laying on the bed in a way that showed every bit of her intentions.

"You're...very direct," Hermione said, waiting for the embarrassment to pass enough that she could look at Melissa.

"I know what I want, and I try not to waste time getting it. Consensually. You know that foreplay is a thing, right?" Melissa seemed amused. "I'm not going to start stuffing you full of silicone without having a few kisses and some touching first."

Hermione shook her head and sat down on the edge of the bed, still facing away from Melissa.

"You're still so casual and direct about it," Hermione said. "It's not something that gets talked about where I'm from."

Hermione felt Melissa hug her from behind, which had the additional effect of telling Hermione that Melissa had shed the rest of her clothing.

"It's okay," Melissa said softly. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to. I would love to kiss you, but only if you want."

Hermione turned her head to Melissa and pressed her lips to hers gently.

"You're still adorable when you're--" Melissa started before Hermione kissed her again, more firmly this time. And again, before Melissa could make a quip about Hermione as a kisser.

Melissa responded to Hermione's aggression with some of her own, leaning into a kiss and letting her hands wander up Hermione's chest, squeezing her breasts as if she were weighing melons in her hands.

Then Melissa pinched. Lightly, but it was enough to make Hermione squirm and slap the offending hand. Turning back toward Melissa, Hermione pinched back, with a "see how you like it" look on her face.

Melissa seemed delighted, and Hermione realized she'd been baited into doing exactly what Melissa wanted. The grin on Melissa's face was far too familiar to Hermione. When Ginny got that look on her face, there wasn't anything that was going to get in her way. When Melissa pinned her arms with one hand and straddled her to stop her from escaping while she used the other hand to roam freely underneath Hermione's shirt, tickling, squeezing, pinching, and unclasping everything, Hermione remembered that Ginny fought efficiently, if not necessarily fairly.

Hermione stopped resisting, denying Melissa the satisfaction of conquering an opponent. Melissa took the opportunity to strip Hermione of her remaining clothes before admiring her handiwork.

"You're beautiful," Melissa said. "I was pretty sure that was the case, but actually seeing it -- you should model. You'd make everyone drool."

Hermione tried to turn onto her side and deflect the attention, but Melissa still had her straddled.

Melissa leaned in and kissed Hermione on the cheek and settled in behind her, pulling up a blanket to cover them.

"Maybe some other time you'll let me explore more thoroughly," Melissa said. "You look like you've had enough."

"I'm not used to being beautiful," Hermione said softly. "I've always been brilliant and a know-it-all and a mate, but not...this."

"Their loss," Melissa said firmly.

"I do have one question, though," Hermione said, turning to face Melissa. "What are you calling a magic wand?"

Melissa's face lit up. "It's a 'personal massager,'" she said, "and possibly one of the holy grails of sex toys. Would you love to see it?"

Hermione nodded. Melissa rolled to the other side, grabbed something that looked nothing like the magic wands she was used to seeing (and using) and presented it.

"It looks ridiculous," Hermione said.

"I know," Melissa replied, giggling a little, "but when you feel it, you'll know why it's magic. Do you want to try it?"

Melissa turned on the vibrator, and a hum filled the air between them.

"You know, this became so popular with people getting themselves off that the original company that manufactured it sold the name and the trademark to another company in embarrassment."

Hermione laughed. "Even knowing that, I think I'll pass," she said, looking dubiously at the wand.

"Suit yourself," Melissa said, smiling, and turned the head of the vibrator on herself, gasping slightly when it made contact.

Hermione became much more interested in it after she saw what Melissa did to herself with it, and by the time they fell asleep, curled in each other's arms, both very satisfied, Hermione resolved to find a magic wand of her own after the curse was broken.

The next morning, after dressing, Hermione stumbled out into the common area of the apartment, and thought she was still dreaming when a very familiar head of pink hair said good morning to her.

"Hello, Hermione," Phyllis said, looking up from her laptop. "I wondered if you were who Melissa brought home last night."

"You're..." Hermione started before trailing off.

"Roommates, yes. Also polyamorous, which is somewhat of a necessity due to Melissa having a sex drive and my mostly not. Did she tell you?"

Melissa entered from the kitchen with a stack of pancakes on a plate.

"Good morning...and what did I forget?" she said, noticing that both Hermione and Phyllis were looking at her disapprovingly.

"To mention your roommate," Phyllis said.

"To mention your relationships," Hermione added.

"Oh," Melissa said, looking actually embarrassed for a minute. "You'd mentioned you met Phyllis, and since she was there at the game, I assumed she'd filled you in on all the details of how it all worked out. I would have told you otherwise."

Hermione looked skeptical.

"You can tell Hermione everything when you walk her back into town," Phyllis said, still holding eye contact with Melissa. Hermione felt like something passed between them for a moment, and then Melissa nodded.

Phyllis turned back to Hermione, smiling as she closed the laptop and put it into a bag.

"I'll see you later, at the shop," she said cheerily. "Eat first, though! Don't want you hungry for your appointment."

Bag packed, Phyllis bounded out the door, leaving Hermione confused. Again.


End file.
